AN investigation into “shocking” allegations that teachers were unfairly given advice about upcoming exams was under way last night amid rising concerns about standards.

Two examiners with Cardiff-based exam board WJEC have been suspended following the claims, which centred on teachers being given detailed advice on forthcoming exam questions and how students could score higher marks.

England’s exams regulator Ofqual has warned that exam boards could be forced to re-write next year’s GCSE and A-level papers if it is found that teachers were given unfair advice on how to boost results.

According to a Daily Telegraph investigation, teachers paid up to £230 a day for seminars hosted by chief examiners.

And it was during some of these seminars that they were allegedly given advice on the wording students should use to increase their marks, and which questions they were likely to face.

Westminster Education Secretary Michael Gove said it confirmed that the current system was “discredited” as he ordered Ofqual to look into the Telegraph’s claims, and report back by Christmas.

Wales’ Education Minister Leighton Andrews has demanded his own “immediate answers” while the Welsh Government said it takes all allegations of malpractice seriously.

Tory Shadow Education Minister Angela Burns described the allegations as “shocking” and said they raised more concerns about a “lack of rigour” in Wales’ education system.

“We need a thorough and urgent investigation into these serious allegations,” she said.

WJEC, which provides exams in England as well as Wales, last night said it had suspended two of its history examiners – believed to be Paul Evans and Paul Barnes – as it announced it was conducting its own inquiry into the allegations.

It alleged that at these seminars, teachers were “routinely” given information about upcoming questions, words or facts that students should use to gain marks, and areas of the syllabus that teachers should focus on.

In one case, Mr Evans, a chief examiner with WJEC, was alleged to have been recorded telling teachers that a compulsory question in a certain exam goes through a cycle.

He is said to add: “We’re cheating.”

“We’re telling you the cycle [of the compulsory question]. Probably the regulator will tell us off,” the Telegraph reported.

In a statement, WJEC said it was taking the Telegraph’s allegations “very seriously indeed” and was “investigating the circumstances revealed by their undercover reporter as a matter of urgency”.

It added: “The information given at the courses, including detailed examiners’ reports on the previous year’s assessment, is freely available on the website for all teachers, whether or not they are able to attend courses.”

Ofqual chief executive Glenys Stacey said that the regulator could order exam boards to rewrite papers if it was shown that improper advice was given to teachers.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “certainly not acceptable” for examining bodies to tell teachers about the “cycle” of question-setting, so that they have a good idea what questions their pupils will face.

Asked what sanctions were available to exam boards shown to have erred, she said: “We can bring the awarding bodies to account and in fact we are meeting with them today.

“We can, if necessary, pull the examinations set for January and next summer, with awarding bodies then providing substitute scripts if that is needed.”

It is understood that all the awarding bodies involved have pledged to investigate whether individual examiners broke the rules.

WJEC chief executive Gareth Pierce said the board needed to determine whether the language heard in the seminars recorded by the newspaper was “appropriate and acceptable within the terms of the event”.

Mr Pierce told BBC News their inquiry was looking at a range of issues – “issues to do with the examiners themselves, whether they will be able to fulfil future roles, issues to do with future assessment, their integrity and fairness”.

Anna Brychan, director of headteachers’ union NAHT Cymru, said she had confidence that the Welsh Government and WJEC would investigate the allegations “rigorously”.